Zelensky Lines Up EU Aid and Positions Before Russia-US Talks

Volodymyr Zelensky picked up the phone on Monday and dialed Brussels. In a social media post, Ukraine's president said he and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen talked through the bloc's next round of help for Kyiv, with the emergency funding mechanism the EU already agreed to activate now moving toward delivery.

Zelensky said the conversation also covered Ukraine's upcoming three-way sit-down with Russia and the United States, and that the two sides had lined up their positions going in. He added that Kyiv wants every cluster in its EU accession plan opened and chapters closed — a push to keep membership talks on the fast track.

The diplomacy landed on another night of heavy fire. Russia's Defense Ministry said it downed 430 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones between 8:00 pm Moscow time on November 8 and 8:00 am on November 9, spread across Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kaluga, Kursk, Leningrad, Lipetsk, Oryol, Pskov, Smolensk, Tambov, Tver, Tula, the Moscow region and Crimea.

Ukraine's Air Force countered with its own count, saying Russia flew 317 airstrikes overnight with assorted drones launched from the Bryansk, Orel, Kursk, Shatalovo, Millerovo and Primorsko-Akhtarsk directions, plus occupied Donetsk and the Chauda and Gvardiyske areas of occupied Crimea. Ukrainian defenses shot down or suppressed 271 of them using aviation, anti-aircraft missile troops, electronic warfare, drone units and mobile fire groups.

On the ground, Ivan Fedorov, head of the military administration in Zaporizhzhia, said a Russian attack injured six people, a child among them, and caused widespread destruction. He reported 819 strikes on 52 settlements over the past day, including 25 air strikes, 601 drones of various types — mostly FPV — and five multiple-launch rocket system attacks, with 60 reports of damage to infrastructure, housing and vehicles.

Alexander Drozdenko, governor of Russia's Leningrad region, said the number of drones downed over the area early Monday rose to 113, while Ukrainian raids hit other parts of western Russia and disrupted flights at airports including Moscow and Yaroslavl. St. Petersburg's Pulkovo airport had already suspended civilian traffic, and no injuries or damage have been officially reported.